Do bans on smartphones in schools improve mental health?
France has not allowed smartphone use in primary or secondary schools since 2018, claiming that it would help children focus,...
AI is being used to model football matches
To a human observer of football (the soccer sort), the on-pitch patterns—offence stretching and squeezing defence, counteratt...
A neutrino telescope spots the signs of something cataclysmic
ON FEBRUARY 13th 2023 an object with extraterrestrial origins went screaming through the Mediterranean Sea off the Sicilian c...
How artificial intelligence is changing baseball
Imagine if a baseball club had an oracle that could say with certainty how many hits a batter would compile, or how many runs...
Forget DeepSeek. Large language models are getting cheaper still
As recently as 2022, just building a large language model (LLM) was a feat at the cutting edge of artificial-intelligence (AI...
Does intermittent fasting work?
Diets come and diets go. One of the most popular today is “intermittent fasting” in which, as the name suggests, the idea is ...
Cryptocurrencies are spawning a new generation of private eyes
FOR THE criminally minded, the allure of cryptocurrencies is easy to grasp. Decentralised online ledgers called blockchains a...
Fine-tuned acoustic waves can knock drones out of the sky
AS CHILDREN everywhere are delighted to learn in science class, sound can shatter glass. Might it also be possible, then, to ...
Fighting the war in Ukraine on the electromagnetic spectrum
FOR SOLDIERS at the front, electromagnetic defences are as vital as air: invisible when present, and disastrous when not. In ...
Are ice baths good for you?
A “cold shock” sounds unpromising, at least at first blush. Plunge into icy water, and, as you gasp for air, your heartbeat j...